Hope this is not true - from nooga.com

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Thursday, January 4, 2007 ---- A television station in North Carolina, Fox 8, says a Davidson County, North Carolina, couple claims they have been approached by Toyota about buying some of their land.

The news report says the land owned by the couple, Ellie and Laverne Allen, is a prime site for development, located close to the interstate, railway and airport. The land has been privately owned since 1763, but the Allens said they would be willing to sell.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Japanese automaker Toyota is considering several sites for its eighth manufacturing plant. North Carolina, Chattanooga, Alamo, Tennessee , and Marion, Arkansas, have been named as possible locations. --- Nooga.com

I know that there are several factors including land availability, workforce, tax incentives, etc... that go hand-in-hand when someone such as Toyota makes a decision to locate somewhere but I also believe that the mayor and hosts of the city, if you will, can also go a long way in selling your area (Chattanooga as a whole and what it has to offer) and I sometimes wonder that if the current mayor can do that... I don't want to turn this into a political forum but I believe our chances would be even better if Corker were still mayor. I'm hoping with his senate seat he is somehow involved and maybe he can work up some package that would be enticing to the big guys at Toyota.

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It hasn't been mentioned much on UrbanPlanet, but Toyota is bidding this project in NC as well. There are a large number of auto parts manufacturers in the area (some supply the plants in TN) and this location is near where Thomas Corp is HQ'd. (Think the yellow school bus that you rode on as a kid)

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Thursday, January 4, 2007 ---- A television station in North Carolina, Fox 8, says a Davidson County, North Carolina, couple claims they have been approached by Toyota about buying some of their land.

The news report says the land owned by the couple, Ellie and Laverne Allen, is a prime site for development, located close to the interstate, railway and airport. The land has been privately owned since 1763, but the Allens said they would be willing to sell.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Japanese automaker Toyota is considering several sites for its eighth manufacturing plant. North Carolina, Chattanooga, Alamo, Tennessee , and Marion, Arkansas, have been named as possible locations. --- Nooga.com

I know that there are several factors including land availability, workforce, tax incentives, etc... that go hand-in-hand when someone such as Toyota makes a decision to locate somewhere but I also believe that the mayor and hosts of the city, if you will, can also go a long way in selling your area (Chattanooga as a whole and what it has to offer) and I sometimes wonder that if the current mayor can do that... I don't want to turn this into a political forum but I believe our chances would be even better if Corker were still mayor. I'm hoping with his senate seat he is somehow involved and maybe he can work up some package that would be enticing to the big guys at Toyota.

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It hasn't been mentioned much on UrbanPlanet, but Toyota is bidding this project in NC as well. There are a large number of auto parts manufacturers in the area (some supply the plants in TN) and this location is near where Thomas Corp is HQ'd. (Think the yellow school bus that you rode on as a kid)

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I think part of it comes from that they feel it was down between them and San Antonio for the last plant. San Antonio ended up being the winner though. There had been some concerns over the poor air quality in that general region around Memphis. I wish I could remember the details but they had done something to improve things and think that won't be a factor any longer. I know the former Arkansas governor really pushed for it and even took a trip over to Japan. Now there's a new governor, not sure if that will have any affect on it. But I'm not so sure I'd get too overconfident if I was Marion. Even if you did finish second for the last plant doesn't mean you're a shoe-in for this one.

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Possibly supplying the GM plant here, but as for Nissan. I know of no suppliers that hail from North Carolina. I used to keep track of every Nissan suplier back a year or to ago and most of those came from Tennessee, Michigan, and Alabama. In that order too.

Either way, I think it's going to North Carolina. Good for them, but too bad for other sites. It's typical though. Toyota wants to expand their political influences on Capitol Hill (Washington D.C.), so what better way to do that than to spread the "wealth" out over many of the south's states. But again, congrats to North Carolina if they get it.

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The manufacturing style that Nissan uses is "JIT", and logistically speaking North Carolin is too far away for Nissan's supply chain. That is unless they (the supplier) locate here, which they haven't.